Funny this topic comes up this morning...I was just abusing myself yesterday with Sake LOL! A buddy and I went to lunch yesterday and had sushi. I had a large hot sake all to myself (I can't get by on less when I have a meal LOL!), and he had beer. There is a special roll I like that they call the Fireman's roll at this favorite restaurant near my house. It pairs very well with warm sake! My son is a fireman and he loves it too! My buddy and I came back to my home to play guitars and I had 1/3 of an older bottle left in the fridge that also had to be finished off! We have a very good sake plant right here in Folsom, CA. and the wife is on a special mission to pick me up another bottle or two. I don't drink it often, but when I do, I really like a lot of it LOL!

I fast forwarded the video till I got to Skip's acting spot. Great job Skip!

Personally I prefer mine chilled-brings out more of the character for the refined grades. But it`s all good, literally.

+1 for me.

There was this one sake that Chinen Sensei would drink. He called it farmers sake. I think it is what leftover when they make the good stuff. I mean it is gritty. It has stuff floating in it. Sensei liked it. I'm personally not a fan.

_________________________
"It doesn't have to be difficult to be cool" - Mitch Towne

"A great musician can bring tears to your eyes!!!So can a auto Mechanic." - Stokes Hunt

Never tasted sake that I can recall. I was never much into alcoholic beverages, I preferred other methods of amusement back in the 1960's until 1990. Then I stopped most all intake of intoxicants in every form. I still use wine a little bit once every month or so, and a toke or two a week. No hard booze however....Never liked it truthfully......

Being an old fisherman that likes his fish fried or baked, I never thought I would ever eat sushi. I have buddies that call it bait too LOL! But I always loved raw oysters on the half shell and I like them cooked too (except I don't care for fried). I have acquired a love for raw fish over the past decade or two! I haven't tried many of the other things like raw shrimp, crab, octopus, eel, etc., and probably won't get around to those for quite some time (unless Skip recommends them LOL!)...

I`m on my way to work so just a quick comment-CEB if you mean the sake with a layer of white sediment at the bottom, that is a separate style called nigorizake. It`s lees from the rice used in the brewing process. I don`t care for it either but, the lees add a sweet, nutty taste. As for raw stuff, I like sushi. Aside from shrimp and maybe scallop, I`m okay without raw shellfish and I DON'T recommend raw crab-eww.

If you really want to explore sake I highly recommend John Gauntner`s website www.esake.comI`ve known John for many years, he is one of the top foreign sake experts worldwide and in Japan.You can also read about Phillip Harper, one of the few foreigners ever to get a sake brewing license and someone whom I also met at one of my favorite breweries.

Well the high export taxes do a great job of ensuring that even if you do find some, sticker shock may finish the job that fear of the unknown starts.

Okra....yeah to each their own alright. I was unpleasantly surprised to find that okra is firmly established in Japanese cooking-in fact there is a whole subset of sticky, slimy, globular Japanese food-the most infamous is probably natto. I can`t really deal with any of it-unfortunately one of them, konyaku, is a staple ingredient of school lunches across the country. I keep hoping for a drastic price increase-so far it hasn`t happened.

I`m on my way to work so just a quick comment-CEB if you mean the sake with a layer of white sediment at the bottom, that is a separate style called nigorizake. It`s lees from the rice used in the brewing process. I don`t care for it either but, the lees add a sweet, nutty taste. .....

Thanks. I think that is it. I'm not a big drinker either way but it was correct and proper form to drink with sensei after class or after a gasshuku.

_________________________
"It doesn't have to be difficult to be cool" - Mitch Towne

"A great musician can bring tears to your eyes!!!So can a auto Mechanic." - Stokes Hunt

I'll take raw oysters over fried Okra any day! I don't care for fried oysters either, but they are good fresh cooked on the BBQ for appetizers. Just add a little soy and hot sauce after the shells open up and you're good to go! Wash them down with some Sake or cold Beer...

I like it hot and spicy on some foods (especially Mexican and Chinese) but not on everything...+1 On Skip's the chili, sauces, spices, etc., are meant to compliment not cover up the taste. Sweet Baby Ray's is excellent on Corn Beef, Ribs and Chicken, while Bullseye works for me on some BBQ meats for a change up when getting away from the sweet taste. But +1, I like a good medium rare steak or fillet mignon naked with just salt and fresh ground pepper and a glass of Cabernet. However, I have also had a fillet drenched in a port wine sauce or a Tbone steak with peppercorn butter that were/are out of this world!

Ps. I like hot sake (I'm careful to only heat and not boil it at home), with Japanese food...they serve it warm, not hot when you eat out though. For BBQ Ribs and Chicken I like to pair it with beer! Now, I'm getting hungry again!

I`m probably a bit elliptical-or maybe I`ve just been in Asia too long-but I`m not really a steak guy. The idea of a big slab of meat doesn`t really appeal to me, the first thing I start thinking about it what to use it in. Last Saturday I took some beef ribeye, cubed it, paired it with shrimp, boiled some carioca beans (from a dear longtime friend from Brazil) and some fancy hand-harvested wild rice-even better than the usual black grains you can get at stores-added just enough spices and chili sauce to give the mix some consistency-it was fabulous.

I like a small portion like a fillet instead of a large hunk like a TBone. I also like it cut up on a salad. Tri-Tip is another cut that I like to BBQ and a prime rib once a year maybe. I appreciate the Asian concept of small amounts of meat mixed with veggies like snow peas, broccoli or even double mushrooms...you can still cook the meat on the Barbie before cutting it up. I also like a good old Irish stew with meat, potato, onion, carrots, etc., or a clam chowder using the same veggies...

One night about a year ago, I pulled into the parking lot of a local Mexican food place to pick up our order of a dish called a "Mexican Sandwich"( one will feed TWO the way this place makes 'em!) and while walking to the door I noticed, parked close to the door of this MEXICAN restaurant, a car with a bumper sticker that said "BUY AMERICAN" in huge letters! Whitefang

_________________________
I started out with NOTHING...and I still have most of it left!